Numerous industry observers have long-called for the adoption of policies by competition regulators which will spur competition in the personal computer operating system platform market - a market which has had a Microsoft choke-hold, gained through legally dubious business practices, over the past 20 years.

Becta, the government's education technology agency, has today made a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for alleged anti-competitive practices by Microsoft in the schools software marketplace and in relation to Microsoft's approach to document interoperability.

An Italian user asked for a refund after buying a Compaq computer that came with Windows XP and Works 8 pre-installed. HP tried to avoid the EULA agreement which states, approximately: 'If the end user is not willing to abide by this EULA... he shall immediately contact the producer to get info for giving back the product and obtaining refunds.' The court ruled in favor of the user, who received back €90 for XP and €50 for Works. He…

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “gave a talk at a company event in the UK last week saying that Red Hat customers need to pay Microsoft for its beloved IP, whatever it may consist of,” says Groklaw, quoting him as saying:

People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us.

Recently, a 'think tank' in Europe suggested that the European Union should establish legislation that would force PC manufacturers to unbundle the Windows operating system from the sale of new PCs.

Forget the impact on Redmond; the EC antitrust ruling will be felt most by Intel, Google, and other U.S. companies hoping to expand abroad.

Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating system, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market.